‘Ant-Man 2‘ Confirmed as Marvel Shifts Phase 3 Release Dates

When Marvel originally revealed their plans for Phase 3, conspicuously missing was a date for Ant-Man 2. There was some concern that Ant-Man may never get his sequel and would have to be content appearing in other Marvel things (like Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War), but those concerns have been allayed by Marvel who officially announced Ant-Man and the Wasp will open in theaters in 2018!

Ant-Man and the Wasp will hit theaters on July 6, 2018 (the original Black Panther release date) with Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly returning to their roles from the original. The title is notable because it’s the first time a Marvel film has been named after a female superhero. To date, Ant-Man has made $178.5M domestically and $231.3M internationally and is currently the ninth biggest movie of the year so far. Not exactly Avengers: Age of Ultron numbers, but enough to warrant a sequel.

To make room for the Ant-Man sequel, Marvel has shifted a few existing movies. Black Panther has moved to February 16, 2018 and Captain Marvel will now open in theaters on March 8, 2019, delayed a few months from the originally planned November 2, 2018 (Warner Bros. was rumored to be opening Ben Affleck’s solo Batman movie on Captain Marvel’s old date, which may explain that move.)

Finally, Marvel announced three more release dates for mysterious, untitled films on May 1, 2020, July 10, 2020, and November 6, 2020.

With those last three films coming after the end of Phase 3, can we assume that those will be the start of Phase 4? We’ll guess that the May 1, 2020 date is Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and one of the additional dates could be a Doctor Strange sequel. Unclear yet what the third could be.

While Rudd and Lilly will return for Ant-Man and the Wasp, it’s unknown if director Peyton Reed will also return. Reed tweeted the news, but no confirmation on his participation just yet.